Gaston Zitelli and Davide Bracaglia are the students behind the Feelsafe app. Gaston and Davide got to hear about the infamous attacks through the news and the facebook group ”Dom kallar oss studenter.” They started discussing together and from there the idea for the Feelsafe app developed.
Gaston and Davide both study System Analysis at Örebro University. –We are taught to simplify. Make life easy for people, says Gaston. When they heard about the assaults the two have found a way to do their part in countering it. With their tact for simplicity, the pair has through the app created amazing capabilities with a simple push. The push of the button alerts chosen friends’ or family if you feel unsafe, have had an accident, are lost etc.
Gaston is very clear that the app was not started for monetary gain. – We do not want money. It was never the money. We will never put any adverts. Davide explains that the target group is not limited to students coming from the bar. –It could also be for someone who cycles and falls, says Davide. –It is also for people like my mother, Gaston says. She lives in Austria. Alone. There is no one nearby. She also doesn’t know how all the functions of the telephone work, Gaston smiles. With the app his mum can now easily communicate if she has a headache or any other problem. –She can just press a button.
The feedback to the app has been positive according to the app-developers. – We got a lot of likes on our article in NA, Örebro’s local paper. Since its release the app has gotten 200-300 downloads for android and they are hoping to have their iphone app up this week. – Since most people have iphones, Davide adds.
The technology needed to make the apps is something they were self-taught. – We don’t study app-development in the course, they explain.
On how the two feel about going out, they say it is difficult. Since both come from such different backgrounds than Sweden, Gaston is from Argentina and Davide from Italy. Still they add, it is important to be alert and careful when you go out nonetheless.
The two hope that the trend of attacks will die down. In the meanwhile hoping that students will feel a little safer having, but never needing to use the app.
For more information about the app and how to use it, click here.
/ Hulda Fahmi Skribent
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